Tag: Israeli – Palestinian Relations
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Children clearly are unable to distinguish between right and wrong and just follow what they are shown by adults. This is why you cannot blame the children from a Jihad kindergarten who are involved in a mock campaign to promote violence against Israel.

The students are from a kindergarten in Gaza that is owned and operated by Islamic Jihad. As part of the graduation ceremony for completing their first year of school, the children were dressed in military uniform and waved plastic AK-47s in the air while chanting anti-Semitic epithets.

The director of the kindergarten said that it is the childrenâ€™s duty to continue with the resistance and recognize Israel as the enemy.

During the ceremony, the children stood in formation next to cardboard coffins draped in flags bearing the image of militant factions. There was also a segment where one child was dressed as an Israeli prison guard and dunked the head of another child dressed as a Palestinian prisoner in water. The demonstration was done to depict the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in detention.

One of the students said that he wanted to become a martyr by blowing himself up and killing as many Jews as possible in the process. That same child went on to say that the ideal scenario would be for him to blow himself up on a bus.

In attendance were the parents and relatives of the graduates, many of whom are actively involved with extremist Palestinian factions.

One of the teachers says that the goal is for each of the children to follow an active role in the resistance in the name of Allah and to protect the soil of Palestine.

Due to such influences, it is a shame that these children will likely end up on the battlefield as adults where they will be more than happy to claim innocent lives, even at the cost of their own.

On Tuesday, thousands of flag-waving Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the homecoming of hundreds of prisoners exchanged for Shalit, chanting for Hamas to seize yet more Israeli soldiers! “The people want a new Gilad!” they chanted.

They must have been fond of the young Jewish man.

Bradley burst-out-laughing Burston blogged the following blurb in blatant Palestinian approval over at Haaretz:

“The deal is a remnant of an Israel which is fast disappearing. It is a remnant of a particular brand of quiet, exceptional courage. It is an expression of a national character that goes generally ignored in a media environment which prizes the extreme over the honorable. It is evidence of a people true to values which time and sectarian agendas may appear to have diluted and erased.”

He goes on:

“The list of the terrorists being released is unendurable. The numbers are beyond understanding. Until you consider that this is how it’s always been.”

And on:

“In Israel’s nine prisoner exchanges with Arab enemies, dating back to the first, 54 years ago, Israel has freed 13,509 prisoners in order to win the release of a total of 16 soldiers. An average of well over 800 for each one. This is the price.”

Meanwhile, early Sunday morning, rightist activists broke into the home of Justice
Minister Yaakov Neeman to protest the deal they deemed perilously disproportionate.
The rightist activist Baruch Marzel commented on the protests, saying Neeman â€œhas done absolutely nothingâ€ during his term and that his first act is â€œgiving amnesty to 600 murderers.â€

Protests were also held at the home of President Shimon Peres.

In another corner of the Shalit story the despotic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly telephoned Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to extend congratulations on the terror organization’s victory which he said in a statement to Arab press is the “fruit of strong and continued resistance against the Zionist regimeâ€¦ No doubt this is a great victory for the Palestinian nation and all Muslims and for freedom- and justice-seeking people of the world, and independent nations are as happy as the oppressed Palestinian people over this issueâ€¦”

In the statement Ahmajinejad’s reference to Haniyeh as the “Palestinian Prime Minister” without making any reference to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

No one is paying the price for price-tagging but the settlers. Period.

Four female Jews, three of them minors, were arrested on suspicion of torching Palestinian vehicles in Hebron last month. Seems to the court this was related to the Price tag policy of some of the settlers.

The brother of one of the suspects was killed during Operation Cast Lead, this may have affected her judgment, admitted the authorities.

This does not excuse price-tagging.

In an even more disturbing tale, according to Ynet, an IDF major was indicted Sunday on charges of ordering a soldier to run over a 20-year old Palestinian with an army jeep in 2008.

And again: a lieutenant and infantry commander were indicted on charges of vandalism with malicious intent for torching Palestinian vehicles with his soldiers in 2009.

There is no hope for Zionism when we fan the flames of Jihad. We become guilty.

Last Tuesday, Fatah and Hamas signed a preliminary unity deal with Hamas and 11 other factions in Egypt. This happened one day after Hamas mourned the eradication of Osama Bin Laden. A formal ceremony is held this Wednesday.

Khaled Mashaal, the number one leader of Hamas who has been living in Syria since his exile from Jordan last year, arrived in Egypt on Sunday as Fatah and Hamas for meeting concerning the new unity government.

Islamic Jihad as well as other terrorist organizations were present for the signing; President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, sent a representative for the preliminaries. He is scheduled to arrive for the formal signing ceremony Wednesday.

Mashaalâ€™s deputy, Musa Abu Marzouk, told reporters:

“We wonâ€™t recognize the Zionist entity. Our rights are still usurped and itâ€™s illogical for us to recognize the Zionist entity because that would be at the expense of our stolen lands and our people in the refugee campsâ€¦Most of the Arab countries donâ€™t recognize Israel, and yet they continue to deal with the international communityâ€¦”

Meanwhile, Hamas are not the only local yokels denouncing America’s execution of Osama bin laden. Israeli MK, Ibrahim Sarsoor, of the Arab party, Ra’am Ta’al, called the assassination a murder.

In a statement to the press he said:

“The mixing of Arab and Muslim blood into election campaigns in the U.S. and Israel is no longer uncommonâ€¦Anyone who follows the cycle of blood and elections in American-Israeli culture in the last ten years will see it clearly and without a doubtâ€¦.I cannot rule out that the murder of Bin Laden was the start of Obama’s election campaign for a second term, especially in view of the fact that the Republican majority in Congress is waiting to pounce on him over his political steps on both foreign and internal affairsâ€¦The murder of Sheikh Bin Laden must cause us to pause and consider not only the event itself, but also what stands behind the action, so that we raise the hard questions whose time has come.”

The New York Times reported Hamas’ mourning of Bin Laden; but an Israeli Arab MK? well…

“The Arab nation has taken its first steps toward its second independence through the revolutions against the oppressive regimesâ€¦The West in general and the US in particular should learn the lessons as soon as possible. Even if it murders jihad leaders and spills the blood of pure innocents in Arab and Muslim countries, topples regimes and replaces them with ones more loyal to it, the US will not succeed in changing the feelings of hatred of our nation toward it, especially on the Palestinian question.”

Sound like extreme Muslimism? Vitriol, almost? Repeated attempts to block Sarsoor’s, Ra’am Ta’al, party from running in the Knesset have been blocked by the Israeli Supreme Court.

Osama bin Laden’s regime, al Qaeda has networks around Israels’ borders in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Al Qaeda cells based in the Gaza Strip carried out many armed attacks launched on the Gaza-Israeli border and Jewish civilian locations. For instance, the murder of Italian pro-Palestinian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, on April 14 was an “operation” commanded by an al Qaeda operative from Jordan named, Abdul Rahman al-Briziti.

Counter-terror sources at DebkaFile revealed that Al Qaeda’s units:

“Are ensconced in the southern, central and northeastern sectors of the Gaza Strip: The southern cluster is based in the northern and southern districts of Khan Younis, a town of 220,000 inhabitants 4 kilometers east of the Mediterranean coast and 1.5 kilometers from the Israeli borderâ€¦A second group more or less controls the town of Deir al Balakh, a town of 150,000 in the central region. A third is embedded in the Zaitun and Nuseyrat districts of Gaza City.”

Debkafile’s counter-terror sources reported that:

“These Al Qaeda operatives have built themselves at least six fortified villas in those three locations. Like the Abbottabad villa-fortress where Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday night by a team of US Seals, the Gaza villas have top security and dominate the surrounding skylinesâ€¦The success of the American, Israeli and Egyptian agencies in foiling a major terrorist attack in Sinai was played down by Washington and Jerusalem, conduct that deserves an explanation in the new anti-al Qaeda climate.”

Hamas’ de facto head honcho, Ismayil Haniyeh, was the only Muslim leader in the world to “bluntly condemn” the United States for killing Osama bin Laden.

Ismail al-Ashqar, a Hamas lawmaker, described the long-awaited capture and execution as â€œstate terrorism that America carries out against Muslims.â€

DebkaFile reported that:

“In private conversations, Hamas leaders confess that they really do regard the United States as the worst and most blood-stained oppressor of Middle East Arabs, aside from Israel. Despite their ideological differences, they genuinely regard Al Qaeda and its fighters as heroic mujahedin and prized allies.”

On Wednesday, May 4, Khaled Meshaal will fly into Cairo from the Hamas headquarters in Damascus to meet Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and concertize a unity pact.

Of Egypt

Meanwhile, Egyptian Finance Minister, Samir Radwan, has been quoted saying the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, which in post Mubarak Egypt does not “obligate his country to sell natural gas to the Jewish State.”

In an interview with a local newspaper during a visit to Kuwait last Sunday, Radwan stressed that gasoline prices must be updated and adjusted to the price levels of the global market, regardless of whether the exports go to Jordan, Israel, Syria or Spain.

Of Osama Bin Laden

A Kuwaiti man called Abu Ahmad is reportedly the inadvertent source that led the United States to the al Qaeda mastermind’s hideout Last July.

The DailyBeast reported:

“CIA operatives tracked the man while he was driving a white Suzuki in Pakistan.Eventually, the courier led them right to the sprawling mansion where bin Laden had been hiding. The most recent cache of WikiLeaks files related to Guantanamo Bay turns up Ahmad’s name several times. The Kuwaiti is linked closely to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key planner of the 9/11 attacks. It’s not clear whether he was at the compound during the raid.”

In 2003, the American government released pictures of Saddam Hussein’s dead sons Uday and Qusay Hussein, however, only after their bodies had been worked on by a mortician. The United States is debating whether to release the photos of a dead Osama bin Laden in order to squash rampant conspiracy theories. The haste with which the corpse was thrown into the sea seems strange to many inquisitive citizens.

Mubarak was in tight with the West. He was progressive, but progressing toward what? He wanted peace between Palestine and Israel, but no democracy in Egypt. Obama wants more land and more time for the Palestinians, yet he does not demand democracy among the Palestinians whose political chasm often results in the jailing of journalists and citizen bloggers, and even sectarian violence.

Yair Lapid wrote in his column in Yediot Achronot Saturday:

“Weâ€™re both good and bad, we love our country and hate it, we think we cannot go on like this but also know there is no other choice.”

He wrote,

“We are both Jewish and democratic, even though itâ€™s unclear what this means. We thank God for choosing us from all nations, but we also remember that he disappeared once, when we most needed him.”

The article continued in a state of uncertainty, bouncing between one extreme and another; symbolic of Israel’s foggy reality, and evocative of, well, democracy.

But if circumstance has not plunged us far enough into a state of uncertainty, the White House has. President George W. Bush influenced us to give up the Gaza Strip, resulting in an impossible situation; the tiny strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan in width, and Lebanon/Syria and Egypt in length, has become a hologram. Turned toward the light you see Palestine; turned away from the light, you see Israel. In between the light and the dark is either the humanitarian and democratic push for peace, the splitting of the land into two countries, living side by side in peace; or a giant puddle of Jewish blood.

With the exit from Gaza in the first decade of the millennium, influenced by a Republican American President, partial to Christian Zionism, the IDF was forced to choose between admittedly disproportionate military operations and blockades, or slow but imminent destruction.

On Friday, President Obama met with Democratic donors in Miami saying:

“When you look at whatâ€™s happening around the world whatâ€™s happening in the Middle East, it is a manifestation of new technologies, the winds of freedom that are blowing through countries that have not felt those winds in decades, a whole new generation that says I want to be a part of this world. Itâ€™s a dangerous time, but itâ€™s also a huge opportunity for us.”

He continued, â€œAll the forces that we see building in Egypt are the forces that should be naturally aligned with us. Should be aligned with Israel.â€

But three or four months before Obama told Mubarak to step down, he told Netanyahu to continue the moratorium on West Bank housing; organizing peace talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, under the aegis of none other than Hosni Mubarak. Obama is saying this: Israel should sacrifice land; AND endure more and more terrorism as a result. And a new democracy in Egypt will push Israel even FURTHER left; demanding the sacrifice of MORE land, that is the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem; AND to endure missile and mortar attacks with a smile on her face. This, according to Obama, according to Israel’s left, is what is good for us.

If almost every Arab nation is thrown into a state of turmoil, though, dog-paddling between autocracies, monarchies and god-blessed DEMOCRACY; why should the Jewish democracy in Israel be the one getting pushed around? Now we make two observations: The Obama White House becomes more and more admired by the Arab world; and Israel becomes less and less secure. Time will tell, but for now it seems as if the truth is found somewhere between survival and democracy.

Police Commissioner, Dudi Cohen, determined that defense forces acted appropriately during the Havat Gilad incident last week, when 15 Jewish settlers were injured when a Civil Administration team showed up at the illegal outpost with police forces, to demolish the newly built structures. A clash ensued in which settlers threw rocks at the forces and the police were forced to shoot plastic bullets. Eight activists were brought into police custody.

And on a more positive note, to the side of the Jordan Valley road, greenhouses and long palm trees ornament the vista, demonstrating the economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Amid al-Masri, an agricultural landowner in the Jordan Valley said:

“Cooperation between us and Israel began at the end of the second intifada because we had much to learn from youâ€¦We cooperate with many Israeli companies on issues like de-infestation, irrigation and seedlings.”

A foreman at one of the Palestinian Authority’s foremost agricultural companies, Omad Hossam a-Zorbe, said:

“This project is funded by USAID and we now have 200 dunams (49.4 acres) of greenhouses. Most of the produce is for export, and whatever is left gets sent to the local market.”

Palestinian farmers are exporting their produce to countries with which they have trade agreements, through Israeli companies. Palestinians farmers also export produce from the Valley to Israeli farmers, bypassing the boycott of myriad European countries and economic bodies.

The Civil Administration is the organization supervising the cooperation; and is also responsible for instructing farmers and making sure they meet tough Israeli health standards.

“We’re working with farmers and the Palestinian agriculture ministry to help them market their produce in Israel and make sure that the product we get is of a certain qualityâ€¦Palestinians take part in seminars on modern agriculture and are exposed to Israeli and international innovations through the administration.”

“This project is the best example of a win-win situation,” “This is an Israeli-Palestinian connection that has created trust between the two sides. We are working with no enemies here. We have joint creation with many companies from the Israeli economy â€“ we buy their technology and seedlings and through them export to Europe and the US and even have Israeli agronomists here.”

They made their name â€“ bought their reputation â€“ killing Jews for sport. Then, with Stalin, they warmed our hearts with cute experimentation in cruel authoritarian government ala the figurative meeting of Cosimo De Medici I and Karl Marx. Threats to blow the West to smithereens underscored this nostalgic era.

After being single-handedly responsible for the formation of the largest, most dreadful Islamic terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, when they lost a war to Afghanistan; they greeted Iran’s Islamic Revolution with aiding that country to build its first nuclear reactor.

So what is Russia up to these days? Why, I’ll tell you what, after years of imprisoning their poverty-stricken Jews within the now-ruined walls of their fallen Soviet Union, they have decided to lead the world in the fight for Palestinian Statehood, along lines that defy the State of Israel.

Dmitry Medvedev reaffirmed his recognition of a Palestinian state, saying Moscow has no reason to change the position adopted by the former Soviet Union when they first recognized an Arab State in Palestine under Arafat in 1988.

The Russian President went down to old Jericho last week and said:

“Russia’s position remains unchanged. Russia made its choice a long time agoâ€¦We supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem.”

Mahmoud Abbas thanked Medvedev and his country for being “one of the first states in the world to recognize the state of Palestine in 1988“.

An al Jazeera journalist realized:

“This surely has raised a lot of hopes and a lot of optimism among Palestinians that this kind of recognition would boost their efforts and might influence the upcoming quartet meeting in Februaryâ€¦”

Next month, the Middle East Quartet of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and of course Russia will meet in Munich to shock the peace process back to life.

Medvedev also said:

“We discussed the possible prospects of resuming the dialogueâ€¦In order to do that, we need to express maximum moderation. This in the first place relates to the freezing of settlementsâ€¦”

On top of the political significance of Medvedev’s visit, at least three agreements were signed between Abbas and Medvedev; and $30m was allocated to media, agriculture and sports in the region, promising much more Russian involvement in Palestine’s “nation-building.”

The blues are catchy, I know. Usually, make me wanna take out my harmonica and blow along with the poetry of oppression. Usually, but not today. Not here. Not in the Middle East, where hope is still alive.

The anti-Israel vibration is a hypnotizing drone of murmurs, cries, actions and vindictive sneers. Though, it would not behoove the Palestinian’s self-interest to become entranced by it. That would be self-defeating. Why instead don’t the Palestinians count their blessings; measure their power? They might be pleasantly surprised by what they find.

Today the Palestinian Authority has political factions with domestic and foreign recognition. They have a president and a prime-minister. They have a treasury, banks, schools, colleges, hospitals and mosques. The Palestinian Authority is divided into sixteen separate geographical parts, each under its own sovereign governance. And I shan’t forget to mention the Palestinian soccer team!

All of the above are qualities of a state, which, for all intents and purposes, yield ‘stateness’ or ‘statehood.’ In fact, the Latin word for ‘idea’ is ‘forma’, the same as the word for ‘form’ in Latin and almost the same as the word for ‘form’ in English. Therefore, if the idea of a state has been resembled, well, you’ve got yourself a formal state. Indeed, the Palestinians possess all things resembling a ‘state.’ They have, in this sense, and perhaps in any true sense, achieved, ‘statehood.’

Last week, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, announced their recognition of the Palestinian state. I can understand frustration by the Israeli government, and most of the time, when they are feeling frustrated, I am too. Though, not this time. This time I smiled to myself and silently said, “It seems as though the Palestinians have finally, albeit unilaterally, achieved statehood.”

In August of 2011, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salaam Fayyad, plans to declare his country’s independence. When he does this, he will have achieved just that: independence, in the truest sense of the word. An independence which cannot be defeated by other country’s pretending such a declaration never happened, or by any military occupation. Even without such an official declaration and the inevitable consequence of angry cries by Israel and perhaps the United States because their peace-talks failed, the Palestinians already possess, ‘statehood.’

The big question is as follows: will this â€“ such a declaration â€“ be good enough for the Palestinians? Are they willing to, at this point, take their half-filled glass of water and declare that it is half-full? Or will they continue singing sorrow-songs and beating down their own self-esteem; fanning the flames of violent Jihadist insurrection in future generations, which will get their cause, nowhere, but thrown back down the stairs of statehood.

In yet another attempt to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, after five weeks on the road through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Syria, the Viva Palestina 5 aid convoy finally entered Gaza also on October 21. The convoy was made up of almost 150 vehicles, 370 people from 30 different countries and $5 million of aid. The activists are expected to spend three days in Gaza to hand over the aid, conduct a number of visits and hold meetings with government officials.

The Gazans were thrilled to greet the envoy.

Meanwhile, according to an op-ed piece by right-wing political critic, Orna Shimoni in Ynet, Stanley Fischer, honored as the world’s best bank governor and governor of the Bank of Israel, is the “main party who exerts pressure in favor of fund transfers to Hamas. He is the one who saved the terror group from collapsing, continues to rehabilitate it, and also prevents the collapse of Gaza Strip banks.”

Orna Shimoni went on to say that since the Bank of Israel took over in Gaza in 2007, 80% of the billions of dollars have been transferred to Hamas to finance arms smuggling.

Hamas succeeds in raising funds from certain propaganda activities in Western Europe and North America. In 2003, US intelligence estimated that the militant group had an annual budget of $50m â€“ a number that has surely increased over the years.

The organization also operates in European countries and the United States, mainly among the Palestinian population, by conducting fundraising â€“ through charity associations and foundations, building hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip, and funding terrorism in Israel – Dawa activity.

According to WorldTribune.com: Hamas approved a $540m budget for 2010, the lion’s share of which came from Iranian aid.

The Israeli Government and the IDF coordinated the delivery of a variety of Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, whose dire situation is actually questionable and whose peaceful disposition is a fallacy.

The month of August saw a 41% increase in the net volume of truckloads entering Gaza, together with the ongoing discharge of the new policies approved on June 20th.

These are including the establishment of a Joint Project Coordination Team between COGAT and the PA, which has already overseen various development efforts.

In addition there has also been a near doubling of the capacity for imports via the Kerem Shalom Crossing since the month of May.

Tuesday afternoon, the Irene yacht carrying nine activists from the United States, Israel and Britain â€“ which intended to single-handedly break the Gaza naval blockade was docked at Ashdod Port after being intercepted by the Israeli Navy. Thank God there was no violence.

Despite opposing pressure and the grilling of senior officials throughout the summer the Jewish Country insists that the objective behind the blockade is simply to prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run territory.

Since the end of Operation “Cast Lead” in January 2009, 500 projectiles â€“ rockets and mortar shells â€“ have been fired from Gaza at civilian targets in southern Israel.

The Islamic Jihad newspaper, Palestine Today explained that unlike other vessels and flotillas, Hamas has been

“Ambivalent at best towards the entire idea of this particular pseudo-aid shipâ€¦”

Therefore you can bet that Israel coordinated aid to the Gaza strip is a lot more effectual than silly Turkish yachts full of anglo-speakers, if what you have in mind or heart is actually the civilians.

A Thought On Zionism

On a side note, I would like to bring to recollection today a few recent instances of Israel demonizing.

Remember when Helen Thomas said this to Rabbi David Nessenoff?

Q: Any comments on Israel?

HT: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Polish.

Q: So where should they go, what should they do?

HT: Go home.

Q: Where is the home?

HT: Poland. Germany.

Q: So you’re saying Jews go back to Poland, Germany?

HT: And America and everywhere else.

And within the same week wrote this on her website:

“I deeply regret the comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Oh and when Jimmy Carter wrote that book, “Israel: Peace Not Apartheid” and then months later told the Anti Defamation League this:

“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,”

Continuing:

“As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done soâ€¦”

If indeed Zionism is virtuous â€“ the world will not receive apologies from the Jewish Country when nine incognito Turkish Jihadist posing a pantomime peace activism are killed on board the Mavi Marmara.

Nor can Richard Goldstone squeeze out guilt or remorse from the IDF concerning “Operation Cast Lead”.

The answer?

One party is propelled by survival and the other by anti-Semitism.

Virtue does not regret its actions. Virtue does not apologize. And a Jewish State which fights for its survival is virtuous.

Clinton: Welcome back kids. Barack stayed home to focus on his square-dancing lessons and dupe some environmentalists.

Abbas: Bless his heart. We’re not too concerned about the environment in Palestine either.

Netanyahu: That’s OK Hillary â€“ I think that you can handle this.

Clinton: Thank you Bibi. You start.

Netanyahu: I have one demand before we begin!

Abbas: What’s that? â€“ umm, Hillary could you please put down the hookah for a second â€“ it is rather distracting.

Clinton: But I wanted to Walk Like an Egyptian. haha.
(Netanyahu shoots her a strange look)
(Abbas takes the hookah out of her hand)

Netanyahu: I demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state!

Abbas: A Jewish State?

Clinton: (coughs) A wha?

Netanyahu: Yes! A Jewish state.

Abbas: haha. That is ridiculous! But the Muslims! The Christiansâ€¦oh my, oh my.

Netanyahu: Well Mahmoud, firstly I find it a double-standard to demand a Palestinian State where Jews are not allowed to build settlements, alongside a Jewish state where Muslims, Christians, Druze and whoever, are given complete liberty to do as they please. Even serve in our Knesset!

Abbas: Why youâ€”

Netanyahu: Hold on Mahmoud. Hillary, PLEASE PUT DOWN THE HOOKAH! I have something else to say. There will be no extension to a halt on West Bank housing!

Abbas: But you saidâ€”

Netanyahu: I made no promises!

Hillary: That means no spaceship Benjamin!

Netanyahu: So be it! No spaceship! The settlements are more important!

Abbas: No building freeze no deal!

Netanyahu: With all due respect Mahmoud, Israel really does not need anything from you in order to thrive. Hamas poses as big a threat to your own people as it does to mine!

Abbas: I cannot control what Hamâ€”

Netanyahu: You’ll learn to control it!

Hillary: That’s enough! Benjamin you are beingâ€”
(Abbas jumps over the table and begins to choke Netanyahu)

Hillary: Ahh, help help, Mahmoud is trying to kill Bibi!

Netanyahu: GETâ€¦YOURâ€¦HANDSâ€¦OFFâ€¦.MY THROAT MAN!
(fixes his tie)

Netanyahu: This is ridiculous. You cannot expect me to make a deal with an animal! What should I build a zoo for you?

Hillary: Benjamin! Be reasonable!

Netanyahu: You want reason? We do not even have a seat in the United Nations. Now I ask YOU Miss Secretary of State, is THAT reasonable?

Hillary: What’s that got to do with it?

Abbas: hahaha.

Netanyahu: You two are nuts! Listen, the United Nations partitioned a “Jewish State” in 1947 alongside an Arab State. I think you two will recall UN GA Resolution 181! The Arabs are the ones who refused it!

Abbas: (lunges at Benjamin againâ€¦Hillary holds him back) I will remember nothing you liar!

Hillary: (eyes roll and shrugs helplessly at the sky as if IT provides the answer) Oy voy voy, this is going no where!

All parties involved in the powwow are positive. Heck, they didn’t go all the way down to DC for the barbecue ribs.

Bibi sent an inspiring message to the Israeli press after week 1:

“We will need to think creatively, and in new ways, about how to resolve complex problemsâ€¦”

He was not talking about the education budget or the evaporating Dead Sea. He was also not talking about the bumper to bumper traffic during the morning commute between Highway 1 and Route 9 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

“â€¦In order to reach practical solutions, we will need to think about new solutions to old problems…â€

He then continued, failing to cite an actual objective.

“To succeed, we will need to study the lessons of the 17-year effort at negotiations and to embrace original thinking, to think outside the boxâ€¦”

He was referring to the Oslo accords.

But the Prime Minister made it clear that he is:

“willing to achieve an historic compromise with our Palestinian neighbours so long as it maintains the national interests of the state of Israel with security first and foremost.”

Of course undermining Jewish nationhood would be disappointing for millions.

Amid threats by the Palestinians to end the negotiation process if the Jewish Country refuses to renew the West Bank building moratorium upon its September 26 expiration, Avigdor Lieberman assured that this will not and cannot be the case. During a special Rosh Hashanah toast, he also recalled the ineffectual Oslo conference and the ensuing tragedy of the Second Intifada.

â€œDo we have a real partner?” he pondered, “What if we sign with Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Hamas takes over?â€

Why would the result of an exit from the West Bank be any different than the result of the Jewish exit from Gaza?

â€œWe learned nothing from the Disengagement from Gush Katifâ€¦If we return to the 1967 territories, the demands from the Palestinian side will only increase.â€

â€¦The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representativesâ€¦

â€¦President Mahmoud Abbas came to power through free, democratic and authentic elections supervised by more than 2,000 international and Arab monitorsâ€¦We are the ones who fought for Palestine and Jerusalemâ€¦

â€¦the Palestinian leadership did not oppress its people as did the Iranian leadership under Ahmadinejadâ€¦.

OneJerusalem is in no position to judge anotherâ€™s religious affiliation. Therefore, when Ashton Kutcher made it publicly known that under the auspices of the Berg Modern Kabbalah Dynasty â€“ if we may call it that â€“ he is indeed an adherent to this particular brand of the Jewish faith, despite his Roman Catholic upbringing.

Well, Israel was happy to have Ashton Kutcher visit last week. The occasion? It was the birthday party of the founder of the Kabbalah Center, Rabbi Shraga Berg.

Well, Mr. Kutcher also visited the Tower of David and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and even stopped by Abu Ghosh for some of the worldâ€™s finest humus.One of the most impressive stops on Kutcherâ€™s itinerary was a visit to Hebron, where he saw firsthand the tomb of the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith. On several occasions Demi and Ashton were seen wearing the famous Kabbalah Red String from the Tomb of Rachel. He also visited the grave of Joshua the elder in a village called Kafel-Hareth, outside of Nablus. He was greeted their by IDF Colonel Avi Gil, commander of the Ephraim Brigade who gave the 32-year-old American actor a baseball hat bearing the logo of his brigade.
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The News and Opinions blog, The Promised Land wrote:
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“I wonder if Ashton Kutcher knows what poor judgment he demonstrated yesterday. Both Nablus and Hebron are well within the occupied territories. For more than 40 years now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in these cities have no political or civil rights, canâ€™t travel, work or study freely, and are tried in Israeli military courts under British colonial laws. The area of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is particularly nasty. Entire streets are forbidden to Palestinians, kept only for the use of a tiny and radical settlersâ€™ community, which frequently harass and abuse the Arab residents.”

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Letâ€™s assume, quite to the contrary, that if there were any political motives behind the visit, it was a religious pilgrimage in the face of Islamic-fascism and anti-Semitism. The blog post continued:

“Did anyone tell Ashton Kutcher that in 1994 a Jewish Terrorist named Baruch Goldstien (another resident of Jewish Hebron) opened fire on the Arabs praying there, killing 29 and wounding more than a hundred? Does Kutcher understand that coming to Hebron to pray with the Jewish community there is like riding into a black neighborhood in Alabama, 1950, with a KKK group? Does he realize that going to Nablus with an army hat is seen in the same way as going there on a Tank?”

Ashton Kutcher is a follower of Kabbalah, not Islamism â€“ why should he care? Besides, will anyone remind the author of the Promised Land blog that on August 23 and 24 of 1929, Arabs massacred sixty-seven Jews in Hebron, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine…

While Bibi says that peace talks could begin as early as the middle of August, only a few days after the Arab League said that it would back direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, five rockets hit the southern town of Eilat and Aqaba, purportedly fired from the Sinai Peninsula. This is just a day after Hamas militants lobbed an upgraded Kassam rocket at Sderot, thereby destroying a hydrotherapy rehabilitation center for children at Sapir College.

Oh and mortar fire too.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator said the Palestinians had submitted a â€œfar-reachingâ€ peace proposal to Barack Obama which would end the conflict with Israel and resolve Palestinian claims â€“ too much hookah puffing?

Obama has pledged to the Palestinians that if Mahmoud Abbas agreed to go into direct talks, there would be an augmentation of the West Bank construction freeze, set to end in late September â€“ too many Marlboro Lights and booze has clearly blurred the Presidentâ€™s Middle East outlook.

As for the Sinai attack, a Jordanian man was killed and three wounded when one of the rockets hit central Aqaba, the Jordanian Red Sea port city. There were, thank God, no casualties reported in Eilat where the rocket struck north of the hotels.

The IDF is in contact with the Jordanian and Egyptian armies.

Egyptian officials told the Israeli media that the attack could not have come from Sinai, which they say is heavily secured â€“ however, Egypt recently sentenced 26 alleged members of a Hezbollah spy cell on charges of plotting attacks on tourist sites and smuggling weapons to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Will Egypt begin to work closer with the Jewish Country to keep the border secure?

Will Hamas succeed in destroying peace talks between Israel, Fatah and Obama, which will, as always, prove ineffectual, anyway?

In the days of the Clinton era, Helen Thomas reacted to former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher’s statements to the press concerning arms shipments to Israel.

“Helen Thomas: Where do the Israelis get their arms?

Ari Fleischer: There’s a difference Helen, and that isâ€”.

Helen Thomas: What is the difference?

Ari Fleischer: The targeting of innocents through the use of terror, which is a common enemy for Yasir Arafat and for the people of Israel, as well asâ€”.

Helen Thomas: Palestinian people are fighting for their landâ€¦I think that the killing of innocents is a category entirely different. Justifying killing of innocents for land is an argument in support of terrorism”.

But sadly Helen Thomas never got the message. The 89-year-old journalist and author, Dean of the White House Press Corps has retired, leaving behind her a front row seat and a legacy as one of the strongest anti-Israel stances observable in mainstream America, say, right up there with ol’ Jimmy Carter.

On May 27, 2010, outside the Jewish Heritage Celebration Day event at the White House, the following conversation happened between Thomas and Rabbi David Nesenoff:

“Nesenoff: Any comments on Israel? We’re asking everybody today, any comments on Israel?

Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

Nesenoff: Oooh. Any better comments on Israel?

Thomas: Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Poland …

Nesenoff: So where should they go, what should they do?

Thomas: They go home.

Nesenoff: Where’s the home?

Thomas: Poland. Germany.

Nesenoff: So you’re saying the Jews go back to Poland and Germany?

Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries? See?”

“Anger over Gaza is a distraction. We cannot forget that Israel is the Westâ€™s best ally in a turbulent regionâ€¦In an ideal world, the assault by Israeli commandos on the ‘Mavi Marmara’ would not have ended up with nine dead and a score wounded. In an ideal world, the soldiers would have been peacefully welcomed on to the ship.”

“Israel is a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technologyâ€¦62 years after its creation, Israel is still fighting for its very survival. Punished with missiles raining from north and south, threatened with destruction by an Iran aiming to acquire nuclear weapons and pressed upon by friend and foe, Israel, it seems, is never to have a momentâ€™s peace.”

Aznar says the real threat to the region is extreme Islamism, “which sees Israelâ€™s destruction as the fulfillment of its religious destiny and, simultaneously in the case of Iran, as an expression of its ambitions for regional hegemony”.

He added:

“Both phenomena are threats that affect not only Israel, but also the wider West and the world at largeâ€¦It is easy to blame Israel for all the evils in the Middle Eastâ€¦Some even act and talk as if a new understanding with the Muslim world could be achieved if only we were prepared to sacrifice the Jewish state on the altar. This would be folly.”